Director – Human Resources
Company: STAGE OTT (Stage Technologies Private Limited)
Location: Noida, STAGE HQ
Employment Type: Full-Time | Reports to: CEO
Team: Lean HR ops + recruiters as needed
Position Summary
STAGE is hiring a Director–HR to sit at the leadership table and own people strategy as we scale a culture-first OTT across India and the world. This is not a classic CHRO who “keeps the trains running.” The mandate is organizational architecture and judgment in an AI-native company: how STAGE organizes, hires, rewards, and evolves roles as AI changes the work itself across Content, Growth, Product, Engineering and Operations.
Payroll, compliance, and HRIS report into or are governed by this role — but day-to-day execution is not the job. Designing the org, the talent bar, and the systems that make STAGE scale without cultural and key-person collapse is.
Why this role exists now
- STAGE has outgrown the founder-led management of the teams and tasks. Building an AI-native leadership layer is the need of the hour.
- Leadership hires need a consistent bar and a partner who can challenge founders with data.
- AI is changing productivity assumptions across functions - headcount plans that ignore that will over-hire or under-build.
- New orgs designs will be lean and the culture will be direct. This will need radically new thinking on how these will be designed.
- Reward and equity must stay fair and financially disciplined as we grow past early-stage improvisation.
Mandate — five strategic questions you own
- What should the organization look like as STAGE scales and AI changes work - structure, roles, spans, reporting lines, and which work gets automated vs. human-owned?
- How does STAGE attract, develop, and retain talent in a category (regional cultural OTT) with limited hiring precedent?
- What does fair, motivating reward look like - compensation philosophy, equity, bands, and career progression the business can sustain?
- How does STAGE build a culture of regional pride and authenticity at a size where culture no longer happens by accident?
- How do org, talent, and workforce plans directly serve growth and milestones - never a parallel HR track?
Key Responsibilities
1. People Strategy & Organizational Architecture (core)
- Design and continuously refresh STAGE’s org structure and operating model as headcount and complexity grow — not a-time chart.
- Lead the shift to an AI-native organization: reassess which roles, teams, and workflows should be redesigned, consolidated, newly created, or automated across Content, Product, Growth, Engineering and Ops. More importantly, as everyone becomes a FSB, Full Stack Builder, do functions even have a role to play?
- Build workforce plans grounded in expected productivity shifts from AI adoption, not historical headcount-to-output ratios
- Run scenarios: “same output with −X% headcount,” “new capabilities with same headcount,” “where humans stay in the loop.”
- Own concrete initiatives such as: role redesign for AI-assisted creative/production; clear founder vs. function-head decision rights.
- Bring an informed external POV on how comparable consumer tech / media / AI-forward companies are restructuring — adapt to STAGE’s stage and culture-first mission.
- Map institutional knowledge and key-person risk; propose succession and coverage before those become business risks.
2. Talent Strategy & Leadership Development
- Define talent strategy: where to build depth internally, where to hire senior talent externally, and how to close critical capability gaps.
- Build leadership bench strength — identify and develop high-potentials into future function heads.
- Set the hiring bar and involvement model for senior/leadership hires with founders (scorecards, interview loops, decision rights). Partner with the People desk / TA on process quality without becoming a recruiter.
- Own the quality of leadership hiring outcomes — time-to-bar, pass-through rates, 6/12-month retention of senior hires — and fix the system when they slip.
3. Total Rewards & Compensation Philosophy
- Own compensation philosophy and architecture — bands, equity strategy, promotion/progression logic that stay fair and defensible as STAGE scales.
- Ensure rewards are competitive enough to retain without breaking financial discipline; partner with Finance on affordability and equity pool.
- Design frameworks for performance, calibration, and progression that founders and function heads can actually run.
4. Culture & Employee Experience
- Define what STAGE’s culture must be beyond founder-proximity size, and build the systems that sustain it (rituals, feedback, manager standards, values in practice).
- Own the employee experience agenda — engagement, listening loops, manager quality, and policies that signal what the company actually values.
- Protect authenticity and regional pride as cultural assets, not slogans — especially as teams grow outside the founding circle.
5. Governance, Risk & Operational Oversight
- Ensure payroll, statutory compliance (EPF, ESI, TDS, POSH, shops & establishment as applicable), and HRIS run with zero gaps — via process design and the right people/systems, whether owned directly or delegated.
- Set standards and audit rigor for operational HR; you are accountable for outcomes even when others execute.
- Maintain a standing view of concentration risk (knowledge, titles, relationships) and succession coverage for function-head roles.
6. Executive Partnership
- Thinking partner to the CEO/founders on restructuring, new function launches, leadership changes, and boat/desk design — judgment and data, not administration.
- Bring people and org considerations into business strategy before they become HR emergencies.
- Challenge founders calmly with evidence when org design, hiring bar, or reward decisions will create long-term drag.
First 60 days (indicative)
- Days 1–30: Diagnose current org chart, spans, key-person risk, hiring bar for leadership seats, and AI-tooling reality by function. Share a blunt org health memo with the CEO.
- Propose a refreshed org / operating model for the next 12–18 months, including AI-native role redesign priorities and succession coverage for critical seats.
- Days 31–60: Lock compensation philosophy v1, leadership hiring scorecards, and a living workforce plan tied to growth milestones — with clear owners and review cadence.
Requirements
Experience: 10+ years in HR, with at least 2 years as leadership, ideally with direct founder or board exposure in a startup
- Must have: - Track record designing org structures and operating models — not administering inherited
- Built compensation philosophy and talent strategy at leadership level
- Operated as a strategic partner to founders/CEOs with the judgment to push back
- Strong grounding in Indian statutory and payroll compliance — enough to govern rigorously even if not personally executing
- A clear, demonstrated point of view on how AI reshapes org design, roles, and workforce planning (not just “HR chatbots”)
Preferred:
- Startup, OTT, media, consumer tech, or high-growth consumer internet
- Built an HR function from a lean base
- External visibility in people strategy (writing, speaking, advisory)
- Experience partnering with Finance on equity, bands, and workforce cost
Not a fit if you
- Have operated in execution / administrative HR
- Have never independently shaped org design, comp philosophy, or talent strategy
- See AI as an HR tooling question rather than an organizational design question
- Are uncomfortable challenging founders with a strategic point of view
- Want a fully built HR machine to manage rather than a function to architect
Success looks like (Year 1)
- A living org model and workforce plan the CEO trusts in strategy conversations
- Leadership hiring bar is consistent; fewer “almost” senior hires; better 12-month retention of leaders
- Comp/equity philosophy is written, used, and Finance-aligned
- Key-person and succession risks for function heads are visible and actively managed
- Ops HR (payroll/compliance/HRIS) is clean under clear standards — no founder firefighting
